Alvin Hansen

Alvin Hansen
Hansen in 1938
Born	(1887-08-23)August 23, 1887 Viborg, South Dakota, US
Died	June 6, 1975(1975-06-06) (aged 87) Alexandria, Virginia, US
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Wisconsin–Madison Yankton College
Influences	John Maynard Keynes
Academic work
Discipline	Macroeconomics, political economics
School or tradition	Neo-Keynesian economics
Institutions	Harvard University
Notable ideas	IS–LM model (Hicks–Hansen synthesis) Secular stagnation theory
Scientific career
Thesis	Cycles of prosperity and depression in the United States, Great Britain and Germany; a study of monthly data 1902-1908 (1918)
Doctoral advisor	Richard T. Ely John R. Commons Frederic L. Paxson
Doctoral students	Evsey Domar Eva Mueller Hyman Minsky Richard Musgrave Lloyd Metzler

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Schools Mainstream Keynesian Neo- New Monetarism New classical Real business-cycle theory Stockholm New neoclassical synthesis Saltwater and freshwater Heterodox Austrian Chartalism Modern monetary theory Ecological Post-Keynesian Circuitism Disequilibrium Marxian Market monetarism Supply-side
People François Quesnay Adam Smith Thomas Robert Malthus Karl Marx Léon Walras Knut Wicksell Irving Fisher Wesley Clair Mitchell John Maynard Keynes Alvin Hansen Michał Kalecki Gunnar Myrdal Simon Kuznets Joan Robinson Friedrich Hayek John Hicks Richard Stone Hyman Minsky Milton Friedman Paul Samuelson Lawrence Klein Edmund Phelps Robert Lucas Jr. Edward C. Prescott Peter Diamond William Nordhaus Joseph Stiglitz Thomas J. Sargent Paul Krugman N. Gregory Mankiw
See also Macroeconomic model Publications in macroeconomics Economics Applied Microeconomics Political economy Mathematical economics
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Alvin Harvey Hansen (August 23, 1887 – June 6, 1975) was an American economist who taught at the University of Minnesota and was later a chair professor of economics at Harvard University. Often referred to as "the American Keynes", he was a widely read popular author on economic issues, and an influential advisor to the government on economic policy. Hansen helped create the Council of Economic Advisors and the Social Security system. He is best remembered today for introducing Keynesian economics in the United States in the 1930s and 40s.

More effectively than anyone else, he explicated, extended, domesticated, and popularized the ideas embodied in Keynes's The General Theory. He helped develop with John Hicks the IS–LM model (or Hicks–Hansen model), a mathematical representation of Keynesian macroeconomic theory. In 1967, Paul McCracken, chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, saluted Hansen stating: "It is certainly a statement of fact that you have influenced the nation's thinking about economic policy more profoundly than any other economist in this century."^[1]